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Ben on Film - Evening of diversity planned with screening of ‘Taboo'

Published: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 3:25 p.m.

Last Modified: Wednesday, September 25, 2013 at 3:25 p.m.

Back in 2009, Brian Grimm, a retired public relations executive who described himself as a conservative Republican, found out two facts that disturbed him. First, African-Americans were twice as likely to be unemployed as whites. Second, roughly a quarter of African-Americans lived at or below the poverty line.

Facts

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What: “Racial Taboo,” a documentary film preceded by live stand-up comedy and followed by a panel discussionWhen: 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Sept. 27-28Where: City Stage, 21 N. Front St., fifth floor, downtown WilmingtonTickets: $13.65 in advance, $14 at the doorDetails: www.RacialTaboo.com

"I wondered, what's going to happen to these people if this recession worsens," Grimm recalled. "I wanted to talk to someone about this, and that's when I realized – I don't know any black people!"

That led to a three-year odyssey, during which Grimm wrote and directed an hour-long documentary, "Racial Taboo," exploring a touchy topic: why blacks and whites don't talk very much to each other, particularly about the subject of race.

Things might start to change, a little, this weekend. Grimm has arranged a screening of "Racial Taboo" at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday at City Stage, upstairs at 21 N. Front St. Tickets are $13.65 in advance, including handling charges.

Each evening will be more than a movie. Before the documentary, one black and one white stand-up comic – Kyle Grooms and Dustin Chafin – will face off promising to speak the unspeakable. Both are veterans of the New York comedy scene. Grooms has appeared on Comedy Central and NBC's "Last Comic Standing." Chafin, from Kilgore, Texas, appeared on Showtime's "White Boyz in the Hood." The common denominator: Both were writers on "Chappelle's Show."

Following the screening, moreover, will be a biracial panel discussion. Among the scheduled participants are Wilmington Mayor Bill Saffo, District Attorney Ben David, the county chairmen of the Democratic and Republican parties and local NAACP executives. Kimberly McLaughlin Smith from UNCW's Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion will moderate.

In the middle is Grimm, who, like Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, makes himself a character in his own documentary, walking around and asking questions.

He talks to a lot of people, ranging from black ministers to white Civil War re-enactors. (Among the local participants in the film are diversity consultant Tod Ewing, executive director Frankie Roberts of LINC Inc., evangelist Jerri Holiday and community activist Steve Lee.)

In the process, Grimm gives himself, and his audience, a crash course in the history of slavery and Jim Crow.

"I found a way to understand the process of abuse" that went into the slave experience, said Grimm, who noted he'd had an abusive experience in his background. "But imagine: What if that abuse had happened for seven or eight generations."

The documentary also investigates how the races are separated by a common language, how one word can mean different things to each side. For whites, "plantation" might conjure up nostalgic images of Scarlett O'Hara and rows of trees on the lawn. For blacks, the same word recalls the whip and the chain.

"Racial Taboo" has been screened at the International Civil Rights Center and Museum in Greensboro, but mostly Grimm has been showing cuts to select audiences and friends. Right now, he's trying to organize a viewing for Wilmington-area clergy and church leaders.

The best way to overcome racial prejudice, he said, is to get to know someone of the other race.

"My greatest fear, in the process of making this," Grimm said, "was that I'd say something and be called prejudiced. Actually, I found that most black people are forgiving and generous, especially if you say, ‘Hey, I'm trying to figure this out.'"

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